


Secrets Must Out

by Violentlydelightful



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Cassian is a spy, F/M, Jyn is a liar, Jyn uses a fake name, Rebellious Jyn, Time Jump, cassian and jyn as teens, what the hell is a mon mothma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-05
Updated: 2018-02-23
Packaged: 2019-02-28 20:30:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13279317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Violentlydelightful/pseuds/Violentlydelightful
Summary: When Jyn meets Cassian only days after she is abandoned by Saw Gerrera, she gives him a fake name out of habit. When he recruits her to the Resistance, she doesn't see the point in correcting things. Until Cassian returns with a new mission- to find and kill an Imperial Science Officer whose name makes Jyn's heart stop.





	1. Liana

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A freshly abandoned Jyn meets Cassian in the middle of nowhere. Somehow they manage not to shoot each other.

Jyn had been sitting at the abandoned outpost for three full days before she realized that Saw was not coming back. Her bones ached from the cold and her stomach growled with hunger. She had grown accustomed to the rationing required in a movement like Saw’s, but her 16-year old body was beginning to disagree with this sort of discipline. The blaster holstered at her hip had turned into another weight from the many betrayals she had known, and her canteen of water was running dangerously low. She wanted to throw it away. She was going to need it to survive. She didn’t even have a damn holomap to find her way to the nearest settlement.  
In short, she was having a truly fucking awful day. The sort of day that she assumed couldn’t get any worse.  
  
As always, life was determined to prove her wrong.  
  
A rumbling sound echoed down the hallway. Heavy boots and a blaster. Then something murmured and the ktschhhh of radio static.  
  
Jyn stood up quickly, her heart climbing into her throat. Had Saw finally come back for her?  
  
“I’ll show him to leave me in a damn outpost.” She grinned wickedly and sidled up by the door, back to the wall. Maybe if she got the drop on him he’d even apologize.  
  
The door burst open and Jyn spun out to face the intruder.  
  
“Ah ha!” she yelled triumphantly. And found herself faced not by Saw’s grizzled face, but by the impersonal white mask of a stormtrooper helmet.  
  
The trooper, at least, seemed to have been thrown off by her bold move. Who wouldn’t be? It was a supposedly empty outpost, and Jyn was maybe 100 lbs of mousy brown hair and sharp wit. It was like looking down a blaster and seeing a porg holding it. Unfortunately, Jyn’s confusion held her too. Her hand was momentarily numb from surprise. She hadn’t even put her finger on the trigger; she’d been so sure it was Saw.  
  
Before either of them could shake free of their split second of surprise, a blaster sounded from behind the stormtrooper and he collapsed into a pile of white plastic and lifeless limbs. Standing behind where the trooper had been was a boy, or perhaps a man, his blaster still up. He couldn’t have been more than a year or two older than her.  
  
“Who are you?” he demanded, his Common tinged with a lilting accent she couldn’t place. Jyn’s brain clicked back on, and her finger found the trigger. It felt more natural like this anyway.  
  
“Liana,” she said, picking at random from a roster of aliases she’d used with Saw. “Who are you?”  
  
“No one,” he said, voice cold. “Why are you here?”  
  
“I got lost,” she said blandly.  
  
“Did you know there would be Imperial troops here?” he demanded.  
  
“Did I know there would be Imperial troops at an abandoned outpost, in the middle of the damn woods on a backwater shithole of a planet? What do you think?” She turned and spit disdainfully, a truly disgusting habit she’d picked up from one of the lieutenants. She loved the way people’s faces soured when she did it. Even then, she knew it was better to disappoint people early on, before they had a chance to disappoint you.  
  
But the boy’s expression didn’t change.  
  
“Either shoot me or let me go. I’m tired of being here.”  
  
That, at least, got a reaction out of him. The tiniest flicker around his eyes. Anyone not trained to watch for that, for any expression that might telegraph a blow or an attack, would have missed it. Jyn did not.  
  
He adjusted his grip on the blaster, still pointed squarely at Jyn. For a moment, she thought he might actually shoot her.  
  
“Cassian!” a voice yelled out from down the hall. “I have incapacitated the remaining Imperial troops. I would like to go home now.”  
  
The boy grimaced, his face suddenly transformed from the cold mask he’d shown Jyn.  
  
“K2, quiet!” he hissed.  
  
“Why do I need to be quiet? There’s no one else here but you and the girl. I’ve already done a heat scan to check. Just kill her so we can go home.”  
  
Now visibly irritated, the boy, (Cassian?), holstered his blaster. A tall, slender droid lumbered into the room. It, (he?), was clearly Imperial made, but judging by his attitude, just as clearly reprogrammed. Badly.  
  
“I wasn’t going to shoot her.”  
  
“Well, you should.”  
  
“I’m sorry, but who are you?” Jyn interjected.  
  
“We’re the Resistance,” the droid said.  
  
“Do you want to make a difference?” Cassian asked, holding out the hand that had only moments ago aimed a blaster at her.  
  
Jyn stared at his hand and thought. Did she want to join the Resistance? Not really. But she could imagine her life if she said no. She’d be alone, living day to day, planet to planet. Surviving until she’d been worn down too much to keep fighting against the entire galaxy. Probably stuck in an Imperial labor camp before she saw 30. Dead before she even had grey hair, and nothing but ash in the wind after. Everyone who might have cared for her dead and gone long before that.  
She didn’t want that either.  
  
“Okay.” She gripped his hand with her free one, and holstered her blaster with the other.

"Good." Cassian let go of her hand and walked out of the room. "We have 20 minutes until rendezvous. Fall behind, get left behind." His voice had turned cold again. 

"I hope you like running," K2 said with a hateful glee. 

Jyn did not, in fact, like running, but she was more than used to it. K2 seemed honestly disappointed when she kept pace with Cassian through the dense forest. The droid loped on ahead to make sure their small ship was prepared for take-off. Even as she watched the path for rocks and branches, the petite girl couldn't help noticing the smooth way Cassian ran. It was like the forest parted around him. He deftly avoided every rock that caught her toes, every branch that snagged her hair. He was bigger than her, though not by much, so it defied all logic that he left fewer traces of his passing, but it was the truth. When they reached the small clearing with the ship, Jyn sagged gratefully. Cassian caught her eye and grinned. He gestured towards the ship, which had clearly seen better days.

"Welcome to the Resistance, Liana." His accent did wonderful things to her fake name. She wondered what it would do to her real name. A name even Saw hadn't called her in years for fear of his own crew.  

 _Maybe,_ she thought,  _I should correct him. If I'm going to stick around for a while._ But now, with the ship's engine roaring and K2's somehow dour face peering out the windscreen, didn't seem like the right time. 

"Lead the way, Cassian," she said instead. 


	2. Agent Andor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cassian takes Jyn back to the Resistance base. Jyn is impressed by Cassian. Mon Mothma is not impressed by anyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the kudos and kind words! I keep telling myself that each paragraph will be the last one before the time jump to the events of Rogue One, but then I get caught up in all the antics these brats can get up to as teens. Hopefully next chapter will kick off the plot, but no promises. :P

The hustle and bustle of the Resistance base was at once comforting and terrifying. Cassian had let her keep her blaster, against K2’s loud thoughts on the matter, and her hand didn’t stray far from it as he led her through the twisting hallways leading from the hangar.

“Where are we going?” she asked, struggling to keep with with his brisk walk.

“I have to be debriefed,” he said shortly. He glanced back over his shoulder and saw her several steps behind him. Instead of slowing his stride, he grabbed Jyn’s hand and pushed her in front of him, propelling her through the crowded hallway. “And I’d rather no one noticed a new face before I’ve had a chance to tell Mon Mothma.”

“What the hell is a Mon Mothma?”

Mon Mothma turned out to be a severe-looking woman in the command room. Jyn was momentarily horrified that Cassian had brought her here. Surely there were protocols for this, involving probationary periods and at least a brief incarceration. She couldn’t imagine what Saw would have done if she had brought someone back from a mission.

But all that was wiped from her mind when Cassian started to speak.

Gone was the amiably annoyed boy who had raced her through the jungle, but he wasn't replaced by the icy-eyed killer she had first encountered over the stormtrooper's corpse either. Instead, Cassian became the perfect soldier in front of the command room. His posture was ramrod straight, shoulders back, have clasped behind his back at ease. As Mon Mothma and other high commanders questioned him, his answers were crisp and concise. Jyn melted into the shadows to watch this performance. It started with a battery of questions about the flight in and out, whether he had been spotted, and what the terrain had been like. Finally, they got to the base of the questioning.

“Were you successful, Agent Andor?” the older woman asked.

“Yes, ma'am. I scouted the location and would not recommend it for a base of operations.”

“Why not?” This from a tall man with salt-and-pepper hair in clean robes. Why was everyone so clean here? Jyn absentmindedly picked at the ever-present dirt beneath her fingernails in silent protest.

“Too much imperial activity, Senator Organa.”

“Nonsense!” one of Mon Mothma's aides cried out. “That sector's been abandoned for years!”

“If you believe that, then you’re either a fool or a traitor.” Cassian’s eyes flared for a moment, less than a second, with that icy rage. Jyn braced herself for a firefight. Spats of that sort were common among the lieutenants she’d grown up with. But just as quickly as it had come, the ice in Cassian’s face was gone, with no sign that it had ever been there. She wondered if the aide knew how close to death he had walked.

“There was good intel,” Senator Organa said, his voice pacifying. “But we will accept Agent Andor’s assessment of the situation. He was there, while we were not.” There was an agitated murmur in the crowd, but no one stepped forward to gainsay the Senator.

Mon Mothma dismissed the rest of the commanders with a tired gesture. “I’d like a moment alone with Agent Andor. And his new friend.” This sent interested looks scanning around the room, but only a handful of them managed to spot Jyn. As a child, she had yearned to grow up big and fierce like Saw Gerrera, but she had learned to love her small size, her dark brown hair. Unless one knew what to look for, she often just blended into the background. Only her pale skin could giver her away, but she successfully combated that by being, on average, absolutely filthy. She didn’t emerge from her hiding spot until the room was empty save for Mon Mothma and Cassian.

“Agent Andor,” she said crisply, “it will not do you any favors here to cast baseless accusations like that, especially in front of all the commanders. Do not make the mistake of thinking you are the only one here for a reason.”

Cassian nodded, just as crisply.

“If I may ask a favor?”

“I assume this relates to the young woman you brought back?”

“Two favors, then.” He smiled, somewhere between the amiably boy and the perfect soldier. It seemed to work on the woman, because she nodded.

“Let us start with you.” Mon Mothma gestured toward Jyn, who reluctantly walked forward for inspection. “Who are you?”

“Liana Hallick.” No point in complicating things right now.

“And what are you doing on my base?”

“Joining the Resistance, ma’am.”

“What were you doing in an Imperial outpost?”

 _Ah_ , thought Jyn. _Here comes the interrogating_. “I was left there by my…” She paused, searching for the right word. One that would convey enough information to stop the line of inquiry, without giving away any weakness or secrets. “Father,” she finished. “My father dumped me there three days before Cassian found me.”

“Why?”

“I wish I knew.” There must have been something raw in her voice, something that hinted at the still-forming wound in her chest, because Mon Mothma’s face softened almost imperceptibly.

“What can you offer to the Resistance?”

“I can fight,” Jyn said proudly. She had been one of the best fighters in Saw’s militia. Better even than many of the grizzled veterans.

“Very well.” Mon Mothma nodded. “Agent Andor, please escort Miss Hallick to the barracks and see if there is a bunk for her.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” Cassian’s posture went stiff again for a moment, the soldier receiving orders. Then he pointed Jyn toward a different door and began walking her out.

“Agent Andor,” Mon Mothma called out after them. “The second favor?” Cassian paused in the door to look back to her.

“Stop sending me on missions that waste my time. You know I can do more than this.” He didn’t wait for a reply.


	3. Erso

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jyn envies Cassian's skill with his sources. Cassian is manipulated into a better mood. The debriefing changes Jyn's world.

Jyn scanned the crowd with growing annoyance. The pipes in the wall behind her were pressing into her back. The steam vents that dotted the streets of Kafrene made the area unnaturally hot and humid. People kept bumping into her in their hurry to get away from wherever they were coming from. And Cassian, damn him, was running late. When she’d agreed to play lookout while he talked to his source, Tivik, she hadn’t known it would take them so long. She tried to mask her annoyance with boredom to avoid drawing attention. There was something in the air of a pot about to boil over, and she didn’t need to rattle lid and alert any Imperials before things were ready.

Instead of thinking about her growing frustration or checking the time again, she started counting stormtroopers as they passed. Their bright white armor stood out like a beacon against the dinge and grunge of the other passersby.

_One, two, three all together_ . She’d been with the Resistance for almost as long as Cassian had. _Four, five_ . She’d grown up in it, just like he had. _Seven, eight, nine, ten stormtroopers_ . But sometimes she still felt like they didn’t trust her. Maybe, she could acknowledge in the silence of her own thoughts, that was fair. It’d been over ten years and she still hadn’t told anyone, even Cassian, her real name. _Eleven, twelve, thirteen_ . But she’d been a good little soldier in every other respect. Surely she’d earned her place just as much as he had. _Fourteen, fifteen, and they were running, their armor plates rattling as they went_ . So why didn’t any of these sources trust her? It was banthashit, was what it was. _Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, oh shit_. More stormtroopers were running past now, and it looked like at least two of them were going to turn down the alley where Cassian and Tivik had gone.

Jyn took off at a run. Unarmored and still quite small comparatively, she was much faster than the stormtroopers, although she left some unhappy people behind her as the crowds started to close up around where the stormtroopers had been. She caught them just as they rounded a corner and made the decision in less than a second.

Jyn whipped her blaster out of its holster and fired off several rapid shots. The smaller crowds on the side street scattered, although there was thankfully very little of the screaming that would have accompanied it on a more central world. She sprinted through the opening in the throng of people, looking in each doorway and inlet until she found Cassian.

“We have trouble,” she said breathlessly, skidding to a stop.

“What?” Tivik exclaimed. He stuck his head around the corner to look into the alley and the main street. “I- I can’t been seen with you. I could be arrested for this. And the things I’ve told you.” The man was visibly spiraling, one hand fidgeting with the edge of the sling his other arm was in and staring at them with wide eyes.

“Do you think they noticed you?” Cassian asked.

“I think that would be an understatement,” Jyn said.

“Oh no. Oh no. Oh no.” Tivik’s chanting was starting to get on Jyn’s nerves. If it had been up to her, she would have slapped him. Sometimes that worked on hysterical people, and if not, then at least you’d gotten to slap someone. But she deferred to Cassian’s handling of his sources. She caught Cassian’s eye as he looked back at the wall behind them, rife with handholds.

“We’re going to have to climb out,” he said.

“What?” demanded Tivik. “I can’t climb with this arm! You can’t leave me here, I shouldn’t have even agreed to meet with you this time.”

“Hey, it’s okay. We’ll find another way out,” Cassian said soothingly, coming up behind Tivik to rest a hand on his shoulder. “I won’t leave you here.”

“Okay, good.” Tivik relaxed. Cassian’s smiling face didn’t change as his blaster sounded from behind Tivik and the larger man collapsed. Her partner failed to meet her eye as he holstered his blaster and turned back to the wall.

* * *

Jyn kicked off her boots and  thrust her feet into Cassian’s lap unceremoniously as soon as they entered hyperspace.

“What am I supposed to do with these?”  
“Cassian, my feet hurt!” Her voice had a note of comfortable whine to it. She was being obnoxious and she knew it.

“So do mine. We were on the same mission,” he reminded her, tone infinitely more tired than it had been when they set out that morning.

“Well so rub my feet first. I’ll do yours after.” She wiggled her toes impatiently.

“Why is it you always get to go first?” Cassian asked, but he started to rub his thumbs across her foot in slow, deep circles. A noise not unlike a purr rolled through Jyn. She settled back into her chair and closed her eyes. “I know you’re going to fall asleep, Liana. And no one is going to rub my feet.”

“Ask K to do it,” she murmured sleepily. Cassian laughed.

“She does it on purpose, you know,” K2 said dourly from behind Cassian’s chair. “She’s a manipulative little thing.” The tall droid paused for a moment. “I don’t trust her. You do remember that she tried to shoot me.”

Cassian pinched the bridge of his nose.

“That was years ago, K. And she said she wasn’t trying to shoot you,” he said in the tired tone of someone who has had this discussion a thousand times and expects to have it a thousand more before the matter’s dropped.

“I guess it was just coincidence that she aimed at the Imperial officer right behind me first,” K-2 said with an impressive amount of flat sarcasm. He turned to leave. “And I’m not going to rub your feet, Cassian.”

“See? What did I tell you?”

From her comfortable spot between sleeping and waking, Jyn raised her hand and slowly made a vulgar gesture at Cassian. He laughed again, the last of the mission’s tension bleeding out of him.

* * *

 

“Do you think I have time to use the ‘fresher before we debrief?” Jyn asked as they walked down the ramp of their small ship. “I stink.”

“What I heard can’t wait,” Cassian said. He made a beeline for the command room, where Mon Mothma and General Draven would be. Even though the Resistance had switched planets and bases easily a dozen times since the first time Cassian had pushed her into a command room, they all managed to look almost identical. Transparent screens glowing with maps and star charts broke the large room into a series of halls and smaller spaces, with various analysts and officers poring over the information. Jyn trailed behind Cassian as he strode purposefully through the maze of command space, more out of habit than any conscious attempt. A few people along the way waved or smiled at one or the other of them, but Cassian stayed true to his claim that his information couldn’t wait.

“Ah, Captain Andor," General Draven said as they approached. "Agent Hallik." The older man nodded to both of them. "Mission report." The command was a formality at this point. They both knew what they were doing. It was just another in a long list of things about being on base that irked Jyn. She flung herself into an empty chair, and began rattling off details about the mission. 

"Unusually high Imperial presence for such an remote area. Basically crawling with stormtroopers," she said. She had tried more than once to emulate Cassian's stiff posture and professional tone, but somehow it had sounded more mocking and disrespectful than even her normal tone. So she had abandoned that. "Spooked populace," she continued. "I imagine there's something big coming, and soon." 

"But you have no idea what it will be?" asked Mon Mothma. 

"No." Jyn shook her head, sending tendrils of brown hair flying loose from her bun. 

"I do," said Cassian, adopting his debriefing posture. Jyn gestured widely to him, ceding the floor. 

"My source heard reliable rumors that an Imperial transport pilot named Bodhi Rook has defected, with word of a new weapon in the final stages of development. A planet killer. He's said to have a message from one of the Science Officers leading the project, a man named Galen Erso." 

Jyn was distantly aware that Cassian was still talking, that her jaw had dropped open, that her eyes were flooding with tears. But it felt like everything was happening at arm's length. It felt like a dream, or a particularly convincing nightmare. It felt like the floor had dropped out from under her. 

"That's my father," she blurted out, unable to control herself. Cassian stopped talking, and all assembled turned to stare at her. 

"What?" General Draven snapped. 

"Galen Erso is my father." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I lied. Not *everyone* lives.
> 
> Also, I apologize for playing fast and loose with the canon sequence of events. I could pretend it was out of artistic license, but really I just haven't had time to sit down and rewatch the movie and I don't remember all the fine details of this part.


	4. Jyn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jyn admits her real name. Cassian stages a rescue. K-2 wants everyone to know just how much he disapproves. (It's a lot.)

“You know,” Jyn said from her spot lounging on the detention cell’s narrow cot, “when I imagined myself in prison, it was always an Imperial prison. So this is a bit of a surprise.” 

“I’m sorry, Lian-” Cassian caught himself before he finished the name, so obviously fake in light of yesterday’s revelation. “I’m sorry. This,” he gestured around them to the small cell and attendant guard waiting outside the open door, “is temporary. Draven just wants to make sure everything else you said is true.”

“Oh, you mean the years of my life I spent fighting and killing and sleeping out in the middle of nowhere on shitty dirt patch planets for the Resistance? Draven wants to know if that was all somehow a lie?” She rolled her eyes. Cassian looked, for a moment, helpless in a way she had never seen on him, before his mask snapped back up. She wondered if he was playing her like one of his sources, and if so what the goal was. Maybe when this was all over he’d shoot her too. 

“I’m going to Jedha to find the pilot. Rumor is he’s with Saw Gerrera.” 

Jyn stiffened at the name, the second mention in as many days of the men who had so thoroughly abandoned her. 

“Do you truly know him too?” Cassian asked, eyeing her with hawkish intensity. 

“I do,” Jyn said. “In fact, everything I’ve ever told you has been true, except for my stupid name. It’s Jyn, by the way.” She barely controlled the impulse to spit in disdain after saying it. All the times she’d imagined telling Cassian her name over the years, none of them had played out like this. Most of them had been a variation on the theme of them, together in bed after a long mission, a tender admission of truth, and either a joyous reception, or her leaving in the dark of the night. None of them had involved anything so pedestrian as a cell and spycraft interrogation. 

“Jyn,” he repeated, and she hated herself for loving how her name sounded wrapped in his voice. “Mon Mothma had analysts run it as soon as you mentioned your... father. It backed up most of what you said. I think you should come with us to Jedha, help us find Gerrera and Galen Erso. Draven isn’t convinced yet, but I’m working on it. I’ll let you know soon.” He turned on his heel and left her alone in the cell. Jyn raised one finger in a vulgar gesture at his retreating back, but her heart wasn’t in it. 

* * *

Several hours later, in the humid dark of Yavin IV’s night, Jyn awoke to the sounds of a commotion on the hallway. She stood up, ignoring the creaking in her bones from a night on the uncomfortable cot, and ran to the door to press her face against the small window. The hallway’s harsh artificial lights didn’t illuminate anything of interest, including, she noticed, the guard. But there was still a sound coming from outside her door, electric hissing and whirring. Jyn took two steps back from the door and readied herself to strike back against whatever was on the other side. The door slid open with its faint hydraulic hiss, and revealed...

K-2SO. 

The droid gave her a baleful glare. 

“I’m here to rescue you,” he said. 

“Thank you?” 

“Cassian said I had to.” K-2 picked Jyn up roughly and started running through the halls of base toward the hangar. 

“What the hell? I can still run, damn you!” Jyn said. 

“This is faster,” K-2 said. Jyn wanted, badly, to argue with him, but as they skidded into the hangar, it felt like a hard point to prove. Cassian was standing on the short ramp of a small ship, and waved them both inside before raising the ramp behind them. Once onboard, K-2 dropped Jyn unceremoniously.

“Oh!” she yelped in surprise. Her ass was going to be thoroughly bruised tomorrow. 

“Stop playing around, you two,” Cassian said, walking past them to the cockpit at the front of the ship. “This is a serious mission.” 

“This is a bad idea,” K-2 retorted. “Do you want to know how many ways this could go wrong?”

“I didn’t want to know before, and I don’t want to know now.”

“It’s a lot,” K-2 said, taking his place in the other cockpit seat. “A lot.” 

“Shut up, K-2,” Jyn said, huffing as she picked herself up from the floor. 

“You be quiet,” said Cassian, throwing a glare over his shoulder. “You’re here to get us an in with Gerrera, nothing more. Once that’s done, we’ll let you go.”

“Let me go?” Jyn repeated, shocked that her heart could break for a second time so soon after the first. “Go where?”

“Wherever you want.” 

“And what if I can’t get you in with Saw?” she asked defiantly. “It’s been years since I’ve seen him. I doubt he’d even recognize me anymore. And even if he did, I don’t think he’d want to see me.” 

“You’re a resourceful woman. I’m sure you’ll figure something out. You can think on that quietly while we fly.”

She bit back a reply. Nothing she could say would make this situation better, or close over the gnawing hole inside her. And there was really nothing she could do about Saw but hope. And about Galen… Well, odds were he was long dead, and Tivik was an idiot or a liar or both. Either way, there was nothing she could do about that either. She settled for rummaging through the compartments under seats and behind wall panels in the back of the ship until she found a blaster. 

A blaster always made a bad situation better. 

Jyn set to disassembling and cleaning the purloined blaster. She had to sit on the floor to use the bench as a table, but the rote action of it calmed her down a bit. The floor was, frankly, freezing though, and she shifted uncomfortably. Her jacket was good for a brisk wind, but not so much against the absolute cold of space leaching through the metal of the ship. 

“K, watch the controls for a minute,” Cassian said softly. She didn’t look up as he walked past her, slid open a compartment, and pulled something out. He walked back over to stand behind her, pausing silently for a moment. Jyn thought he might say something, but instead he dropped a rough blanket onto the floor beside her and went back to the cockpit. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaah! Next chapter is going to be some real FEELS type stuff, guys. I'm really excited about it, because that was basically the nexus of this idea- what if these 2 cold-hearted loners had been with each other for years and years, and how would that change how they deal with stuff in Rogue One? Hopefully it works out for the best!


	5. Jyn part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> K-2 slaps Cassian. Jyn tells the truth for once in her life. Things on Jedha don't go according to plan, as per usual.

Jyn was almost happy when things went sideways on Jedha. This was where they were at their best- back to back, shots flying. Their first kiss had been in the middle of a firefight not unlike this. She could still feel Cassian’s surprised smile under her lips if she thought about it. He’d broken it off far too soon, of course. There was still a mission, always a mission, and even she couldn’t make Agent Andor break focus long enough to forget that. 

The day hadn’t exactly gotten off to an auspicious start- K-2 had implied his indifference to her death  _ again _ , and a blind monk had called her out in the crowd. The former was mostly annoying, but the latter was far more troubling. If she couldn’t sneak past a blind man in a crowd, maybe she really didn’t belong with the Rebellion’s spies. 

But that paled in comparison to the mess they were in now. Surrounded by imperial troops, while Saw’s men launched explosives around them. She scanned the Partisans for familiar faces, but if any of them remained from her days with Saw, they were too disguised or too changed by the intervening time for her to recognize. 

“We don’t have time for this!” Cassian yelled from behind her, like Jyn didn’t already know that. 

“Thanks for the update,” she snapped back as another grenade sailed past her head. Instead of the dull thud she expected to hear as it hit the ground, the grenade landed with a metallic thunk. Jyn whipped around to find an Imperial droid holding the grenade and giving her an unhappy look. 

“Right, right. I should have stayed in the ship,” K-2 said as he lobbed the grenade back into the crowd of stormtroopers. 

“I could almost kiss you, K-2,” Jyn said, breaking into a wide grin.

“Please don’t. Cassian, don’t let her kiss me,” K-2 whined as they sprinted away from the square. Cassian let loose a rough laugh, skidding around another corner, but stopped suddenly. 

“What’s the matt-” Jyn started, following him around. She cut herself off when she saw the stormtroopers. 

“You there!” one of them, the commanding officer probably, pointed to K-2. 

_ Oh no _ , Jyn thought. This was going to get bad. 

“Yes?” K-2 looked at the stormtrooper. 

“What are you doing?”   
“Escorting these prisoners,” the droid said glibly. 

“Where are you taking them?”

“To the prison on-” Cassian was abruptly cut off when K-2 backhanded him across the face. Jyn bit the inside of her cheek so hard she tasted blood to avoid laughing at the look of indignation on her partner’s face. 

“Quiet you!” K-2 said.

_ We’re definitely going to die here _ , Jyn thought, even as her face started to ache from the effort of not smiling.  _ At least K-2 didn’t decide to slap me _ .

“We’ll take over here,” said the stormtrooper. “You better go have a diagnostic run. Sounds like you may be having some systems issues.”

“I can run my own diagnostics, thank you very much” snapped K-2. 

Jyn spit out the blood that had pooled in her cheek during the exchange between the droid and the stormtrooper, and crouched low to ready herself for the fight that was so clearly coming. But to her surprise, when the blaster shots started, she barely had a chance to return fire before that damn blind monk came walking through the crowd. She stared in blank amazement as he deflected fire and struck down soldiers with a casual grace. Even the monk’s large friend fired off the few final shots, she was in awe. 

“You should teach a class,” she blurted out, cutting through the remaining tension. 

“I do. Did you have someone in mind?” the monk asked, leaning on his walking stick and grinning. 

“You  _ used _ to teach classes,” the larger man snapped. “Now you just cause trouble.” 

“And we don’t need any lessons on that,” said Cassian, shooting Jyn a stern look. “Thanks for your help, but we need to be on our way.” He turned to walk away when they realized they were surrounded again. 

“This is beginning to be an unfortunate habit,” K-2SO said. “I don’t like it at all.” 

Instead of the efficient monotony of Stormtroopers, the people surrounding them now looked down the ends of a myriad of weapons, and no two wore the same clothing. 

“Drop your weapons!” 

“Okay,” Cassian knelt slowly, lowering his blaster to the ground beside him. Jyn had seen him make the move a hundred, a thousand times. Right before he would have to let go of his blaster to stand up, he would strike, lightning fast. He’d tried to teach her once, but her reflexes didn’t work in the same ways his did. She looked around, hoping for a familiar face, something to identify that these were the rebels they’d hoped to find, and not another of the thousands of splinter groups who would no doubt shoot first and ask questions never. 

There were no familiar faces, no one she could plead to. But. 

_ Ah _ , she thought in satisfaction. The man to the right of their leader wore a rag tied around his arm, with what looked to the remnants of a symbol she had seen before. If she was right, it was all that was left of an Imperial flag, taken after one of Saw’s successful missions. A different man had worn it then, a secondary lieutenant named Bran. It was barely anything, but she trusted her gut, and she hoped feverently that Cassian still did too. In the split second before Cassian would have snapped up to fire, she kicked his blaster out of his hand. 

“We’re here to see Saw Gerrera!” The rebels’ surprise rippled through the group. This was clearly not what they had been expecting. 

“No one goes to see the commander,” the lieutenant said grimly. He nodded to another of his compatriots, who went around behind Jyn and kicked the backs of her knees. She fell into a kneeling position. 

“Stop!” she tried again. This was not what she had wanted, but it was what the mission needed. “My name is Jyn Erso, daughter of Galen Erso. You will take us to see Saw Gerrera, and anyone who hurts me or my friends will face his wrath.” 

That seemed to do the trick. None of them knew her personally, so no one could verify her story, but Saw’s wrath was legend. In a way, it was better than none of them knew her, because none of them could know that Saw had abandoned her so many years ago. Either way, their leader clearly felt that he could risk it. He barked an order in another language, and several fetid black bags were produced.

Jyn knew better than to argue with them. It was procedure after all. Always had been. But oh how she hated those bags. 

“Has anyone even washed these in the last ever?” she asked, disgusted. No one answered her, but the monk clearly disapproved too.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” he said from somewhere beside her. “I’m blind!” 

Dragging along a pair of monks was definitely not part of the plan, but when had plans ever worked out for her? 

* * *

Saw’s Partisans had refused to bring K-2 to their base, citing fears of tracking capabilities. They had wanted to shoot him then and there, but Jyn had managed to convince them to let him return to their ship. That had apparently used up the last of her good grace with the group. After the very unpleasant speeder ride, she’d been thrown into the dark cells with Cassian and the two monks. Their names turned out to be Chirrut and Baze, a fact that she filed away as utterly irrelevant for the moment as she crouched against the cool carved stone wall of the cell. 

Jyn pretended she was running through a list of known intelligence that might help in this situation, but mostly she was thinking about how very wrong the whole thing had gone. The mission, the thing with Cassian, basically her whole life. She was sufficiently lost in her wallowing reverie that she didn’t notice when Cassian sat down next to her. 

“You could have told me,” he said softly. 

“What?” She looked up at the sound of his voice. 

“You should have told me, Jyn,” he repeated, emphasizing her name. It was impossible to ignore the hurt in his dark, tired eyes. 

“Do you honestly think that I’m the only person in the Rebellion living under a fake name? The only one who joined to get away from something?”

“No.” He shook his head. “You should have told  _ me _ . Did you think I couldn’t keep a secret, your secret?” Finally, the crux of the issue. “Didn’t you trust me?” 

“I-” She paused, meeting his gaze in a way she hadn’t really since his revelation about her father. “I didn’t think it mattered. I hadn’t really been Galen and Lyra Erso’s daughter in a long time. I watched my mother die, I assumed my father had died too. And when Saw left me, I thought… better to be someone else. And by the time I knew you, I had been lying too long. I didn’t want to break things over something that didn’t really matter.” She shrugged, freeing some of her dark brown hair from its inefficient bun.

He brushed her bangs out of her face, and for a moment she thought-

“Saw wants to see you.” 

Jyn looked away from Cassian to see a Partisan on the other side of the cell door. Cassian started to stand, but he shook his head. 

“Just the girl.” The cell door slid open, and the rebel beckoned to Jyn. Cassian gave her hand a slight squeeze as she stood up, but didn’t argue or try to accompany her. 

“Be careful,” she said over her shoulder as she walked through the door. Cassian smiled slightly. Their small joke- he was always careful. She was the reckless one. 

“I will,” he said. 

Jyn squared her shoulders and went to see the man who had raised her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They're so close to kissing! For an established relationship fic, I am really disappointed with my own lack of romance.


End file.
